Center for Investigative Journalism SCOOP Macedonia has received the award for the best documentary on pollution in Skopje by the organization Green Globe. The film “Pollution: Skopje has reached Beijing” was released in January this year and described ways to reduce the pollution in the capital. Besides SCOOP, Green Globe also awarded Gorjan Jovanovski for the application My Air, Donce Iliovski for Best Eco Photography, “One on One” show for the Air Day hashtag, Prof. Dr. Dragan Gjorgjev for his contribution to clean air, the host Ognen Janevski, the bicycle organization Na Tocak, Radio MOF and Anonymous Urban Artists for Best Guerilla Action. The awards were given yesterday at the Youth Cultural Center.

A survey on public perceptions of whistleblowing in Macedonia was conducted by the Regional Cooperation Council in 2017. A representative sample of 1,000 people answered a range of questions on the issue. SCOOP Macedonia was one of the organizers of last year Whistleblower day in Skopje. SCOOP is part of Southeastern Europe coalition for whistleblower protection. The survey reveals the strong need for improved public education and awareness on the benefits of whistleblowing and the importance of protecting whistleblowers from retaliation, particularly in the workplace. Far fewer people than the regional average – only 41 percent – said people should be supported for reporting serious wrongdoing by revealing inside information. Thirty percent said people should be punished for doing so. This is nearly double the regional average and significantly higher than any other economy surveyed. Only 36 percent of...

14 civil organizations signed Tuesday contracts for grants as part of an EU-funded project on establishing good governance standards in local self-government units based on the so called SIGMA principles of public administration. The project “Monitoring of principles of public administration in preserving good governance values” is implemented by the Center for Change Management in Skopje in partnership with the association for management consulting MKA-2000 and the Center for Investigative Journalism SCOOP Macedonia. The European Union has foreseen EUR 70,000 for the project to be implemented, i.e. EUR 5,000 for each grant beneficiary. Good governance standards in the central state administration, established with SIGMA – a joint intuitive of the European Commission and the OECD – are going to be adjusted to the needs of local self-government units, according to project coordinator Martin Dodevski. “By holding a series of events...

Last night the Government of the Republic of Macedonia announced that there were serious failures in the realization of the undertaken obligations to host the UEFA Super Cup at the Arena “Filip II” so the organization of the big event in Skopje has been questioned. It results from the letter that UEFA delivered to the Football Federation of Macedonia. In fact, this is UEFA’s new letter. The first one was delivered more than a year ago and SCOOP reported it in the documentary film “Corruption in the Macedonian football”, published on July 29 last year. Yesterday the government announced: “At today’s Government session some serious failures were noted regarding the joint stock company for managing housing and business premises and the previous Government in the implementation of the undertaken obligations to host the UEFA Super Cup 2017 at the Arena Filip II,...

UNESCO has published the report on the extent of conservation in areas declared as World Heritage Sites, Ohrid condition is regarded as vulnerable and the main reason for the possible degradation are the envisaged infrastructure projects. Macedonia has two years to save its only World Heritage Site. SCOOP has already warned of this in its two documentaries “The Lake facing destruction, institutions only think of profit” and “Lake Ohrid threatened by urbanization” of 10 and 11 April this year. “There is no doubt that the so-called development projects will bring destruction of the values ​​of the Ohrid region, for which it is declared a UNESCO area”, says Aleksandra Bujaroska of “Front 21/42”. “This is the right time for complete abandonment of all destructive plans and choosing a completely different way of developing our greatest natural resource” as stated...

– Special Public Prosecutor’s Office (SJO) has continuously been pointing to the need for adoption of Law on Whistleblower Protection as under the current law we cannot offer adequate protection to all who want to cooperate with us in that direction. Citizens rarely decide to indicate a corrupt business and crime due to the fear they have of the consequences of such activity. Therefore we need to encourage them to report such behavior. But the problem is the trust in institutions, that despite the risk of pointing the crime institutions will act under the law. SJO, as an institution responsible for its task, does not deviate and will not give up investigating crime and corruption. We cannot be quiet and close our eyes, every crime needs to be investigated and citizens are aware that it is something of mutual...